I’m done. Really. I’m being induced on August 16th at 5:30 a.m. A couple weeks earlier than my normal due date of August 27th. But I’m super ready!! So I just pray the labor will be easy and quick.I can’t believe this is going to be my last belly shot before Miss Emma makes her way into this crazy world. 38 weeks. I’m so ready to hold my baby girl in my arms but it’s so bittersweet to have it over so quickly. (yes, coming from the same girl who has complained the end couldn’t be here quick enough). Funny how that tune changes when the end is really here.

I think I’m still in a fog of a reality that I’M ABOUT TO BE A MOM. I mean, I’m already a mom to 4 wonderful stepdaughters but that’s an easier role to fill. This one, well, this one is mine. It’s half me. Oh geez. I’m going to be the one responsible for her therapy later in life. I can’t even begin to express the nerves I have or just how I feel exactly knowing that in just a few short days – she’s going to be here in the flesh. In my arms. Sleeping in our house. Wow. It’s awesomely frightening.

Here’s a little stroll over my 38 week journey: That’s it. The next pictures will be of Emma Jo Lamb. In the flesh. Awesome!

I will be excited to introduce her to everyone! But any positive thoughts and prayers you can send to me that morning on the 16th would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you all for indulging me on my journey! And now it’s about to be over!

And I have been busy getting my thank you cards out to everyone who has been so lovingly kind and generous! I still have some to send out so if you haven’t gotten one yet – don’t worry I haven’t forgotten!

Before I go – I do have some fun things to share that are happening at For the Luv of Art.

First there are lots of new MME loaded into the store all at a sale price! And if you spend $40 or more – use coupon code: highfive and receive $5 off! I am so excited about the new lines!

Next – we are on day 13 of our Card-a-Palooza 15 day challenge. If you don’t know what I’m talking about – you are missing out! It’s packed full of card challenges that by the end of the15 days – you will have a card for ANY occasion! go here to check it out and jump in! You still have plenty of chances to win!

Here are the cards I’ve created so far for this. I also have one more to share but can’t just yet 🙂 So come over and join us! and next time I update – it’ll be with my baby girl in my arms! Have a great weekend y’all! ♥♥ ~Renee

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Wow – so much seemed to have happened in just the two weeks that I posted last that I’m not even sure where to begin!

First let me start with saying that if you haven’t been by For the Luv of Art in a while – you need to! We have begun our 15 day Card-a-palooza which is full of fun challenges and prizes. Be sure to check out the forum and jump in! We’ve also started doing our daily challenges again in the Challenges forum and today we kicked it off. There will be even more chances to win! So be sure to head over and play along with us!

Secondly – I’m 36 weeks now. Can you believe it? Are you tired of me whining? I know I am! I am so ready! My last doctor appointment on Friday went well. My blood pressure was better (134/87) and my iron levels were back up to normal range! I also found out that I was 50% effaced and dilated. Now I know that doesn’t mean labor is imminent in my near future. Heck, I can stay this way for the next month, but I’m going to go out on a limb and be positive that within 2 weeks Ms. Emma Jo will grace me with her presence! Heck, even if she makes it on time for her 8/27 due date, I will be happy. Just don’t be late! I already feel she has dropped some and so let the pregnancy waddle begin!

Sid took some more maternity photos to brush up on her skills while she was here. I have to say – she did a fabulous job! The picture with the boots was taken because those boots were mine when I was a baby. That’s real ostrich skin boots that will be passed down to Emma now. And of course – had to take a picture of the lamb to symbolize the new Lamb.

And with all the chaos, I haven’t been able to update and share my maternity photos that Shanna took of me a couple weeks ago. I’m 34 weeks in those pictures. She did an awesome job! I’m completely in love with the heart and tulle photo! So creative! Look at my poor legs in the second photo, you can see how swollen I am and how I have cankles. It’s crazy how swollen I am. I probably have 100 lbs of just water on me. *slight exaggeration but it feels that way!* It’s awesome having photographers in my life! I have two sets of maternity photos now that I just adore!

Since my last update, I celebrated my 31st birthday, Tom and I celebrated our 6th year anniversary and during this same time we took a mini family vacation down to Biloxi to stay at a house right on the lake. We had a blast and all I can say is, that vacation was exactly what I needed to recharge. Too bad that it started out rough with our transmission blowing about 45 minutes into the drive. We spent a couple hours on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck to come get all 6 of us, our suburban and our boat that we were towing to the Lake house. But eventually we made it and the house we stayed in was perfection and the whole weekend was just relaxing and wonderful! It was tough to head back.

And since we’ve been back, been busy getting ready for baby and I was able to do a Senior Photo shoot – (LOVE those) and I had a work baby shower and my friends threw me a shower. I truly feel lucky and blessed to have all the wonderful people in my life. I love them all dearly!

I will update again soon!I will leave you all with photos from our trip!

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Well – as if I haven’t been counting down already, I have OFFICIALLY begun counting down the weeks now that it’s in terms of a lesser value.

I am 34 weeks. That means if all goes well in the medically proclaimed gestational value – I should have 6 more weeks. But as I know, you know and everyone knows…. Ms. Emma Jo will ultimately determine when she makes her appearance, but, if she doesn’t want to start off being grounded on her first day into this world- SHE WILL NOT BE LATE. But I don’t want her here too early either. I’d prefer to make it back from our vacation first so I don’t have to worry about going into labor in an unfamiliar area. I don’t feel like giving birth at a lake house as much of a good birth story as that may make. I’d prefer the normal boring hospital story. With happy drugs. 🙂

But with that said, here’s another oh so professional photo of my belly “with emphasis on “belly” in my best Austin Power’s Fat Bastard voice”. Good thing Shanna was nice to do some more professional photos of me today. It’ll be nice to have some decent photos to grace Emma’s baby book. But I am enjoying my belly progressions. I will be glad to have these one day.

And to keep with the trend: here’s the updated belly progession

I did have my Dr. appointment last week and things are about the same. My blood pressure is still a concern as it’s breaching 156 but since my bottom number is still hanging normal, she is just keeping a close eye on me. Emma’s little heartbeat is still a healthy 126 and she is measuring at about 36 weeks. So a little big but not too large. Let’s hope she doesn’t hit a huge growth spurt and I wind up giving birth to a 16 pounder like that lady in Texas. Can you say YEEE-OUCH!! If you missed that story, here’s a link to it. Everything is bigger in Texas.

I’m beginning to feel the strain of pregnancy though. Maybe it’s the 100+ weather that is dragging me down or the extra weight or all the above, but I feel like I’m moving in sloooooowwwww mooootttttiiiioooon. I can’t make it through the day without some sort of power nap after work. And sleep at night has been awful with the tossing and turning so I have been a little bit of a crank-meister. Sorry for anyone who has been in the crosshairs. 🙂 But I took a Tylenol PM last night and OMG -I had such a restful night. I woke up feeling great! Someone is going to have to hide those from me, because that may become my crack. I still haven’t had much of cravings. They eb and flow but nothing in particular I just have to have every day. And as a matter of fact, Mexican food has been FAR from my radar the past couple weeks. *gasp* I know. I must be ill.

I’m also at the point where I’m so huge strangers feel the need to accost me in the store (aka Walmart) or comment on my hugeness. At first it stung since I already feel like a whale, and the constant comments were wearing me out but I’m starting to find it amusing and now I’m even beginning to like that people just want to share in the joy of my baby girl. That doesn’t mean I’m still baffled that people are bold enough to come rub on my belly when they don’t even know me. I guess it’s like the bald head. It brings good luck. You just have to rub it. I’m getting used to it.

On a fun note – last night Sidney, me and Macey went to Easely Amused. OMG – what a blast!

this is the original painting that the instructor was teaching us to paint. It’s called Lady in Red. And it was fun to see how we start with a blank canvas, draw our lines and then fill in around them. It was fun to see how the paintings came to life.

Here are our finished paintings and I just love how we all painted the same thing but with our own interpretation! I think we did pretty awesome!

I can see us doing this again at some point!

that’s all I got for now but hopefully I can update again soon with some of the maternity photos from today. I think we got some pretty good shots despite me melting in the humidity. Have a great weekend!

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I have hit 32 weeks and am doing well despite the largeness of my body. You would think by now I would get used to seeing myself getting bigger but every month, I just think…OMG – how much bigger can I get? Like I’m surprised or something. I just hope it slows down a bit because it’s already difficult to bend down. Just shaving my legs these days can be somewhat of a tricky chore. ROFL….but I’m feeling great. Some minor aches and pains in the pelvic and back that go along with having an abnormal amount of weight in my midsection but the belly band helps relieve some of it. I go back to the doctor again on the 7th.

Flashback time: Here is my belly progression up to 32 weeks. Hard to fathom this much time has already passed. The days have been slow but the months have passed quickly. And in just 8 short weeks (give or take), Emma Jo will be here. I will not lie and say I’m sad it’s almost over. Sure there’s parts I may miss, like feeling her movements and hearing her heartbeat, but I’m really excited to be done being pregnant. I truly admire those who enjoy pregnancy because this has been a very big struggle for me. I understand the sacrifice is all very well worth it and for that, I would not trade it for the world. I’m ready for her to be here in the flesh!!!

Things have been busy here as summer is in full gear. My motivation has still decided to take a hiatus but maybe soon it’ll come back. It needs to. Oddly enough, I was able to get a few things done for my Design Team work at For the Luv of Art last weekend. Norma let me play with some awesome MME – Alphabet Soup papers that you can find in the store here! The boy and girl lines are so super cute! I will leave you with these and I hope everyone has a blessed Independence day and is enjoying the time with friends or family or both! Such a great nation that we live in that we have the opportunity to live each day in liberty. Thank you to all the service men and women who fight for our freedom daily. Super proud to be an American!

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Soccer is officially “over”. For now. This past weekend we had Cassie and Macey play in their last games of the season at the Meridian State Games. It was hot but luckily there was a nice breeze and I had my cabana boy (aka Tom) holding an umbrella for shade for me. He’s the best! 🙂

They played well although neither girl won a medal but I’m proud of them and all the girls on their teams – Yay! Hots Shots and K-OS! I’m almost sad to have soccer end. Ok…I can’t lie and say that I will be upset to have weekends back and a less hectic schedule but it will be different to have actual weekends again with no soccer games. Now what excuse will I have to not keep up with the house cleaning?

After the games on Sunday we came home and had a pretty low-key Father’s Day. Gave him his gift and card then I made dinner and then Tom and the girls went to play some Daddy/Daughter soccer at the park. Hopefully he enjoyed his special day and he knew how much we all appreciate how much he does for his girls. He is loved. A LOT.

I also just had my 30 week doctor appointment and all is still looking well! Emma’s heartbeat was 136 and she is measuring good! My blood pressure was up yesterday to 152/70 so she wants me to monitor any extra symptoms for preeclampsia since my swelling is well….pretty swollen. But she didn’t seem too concerned considering I was on the hot soccer fields all weekend and I had no protein in my urine but did want me to take it easy. So I took it easy by putting my feet up and watching the bachelorette and the movie “Just go With it”. Now to just wait another two weeks until I go again! How I’m feeling right now…..overall, I’m feeling great besides the usual tiredness. I’ve started with the acid reflux which has been awful, especially on the days I take my iron pills. Big time *yuck*. They don’t sit in my system well and make me feel nauseaus and gross.

Thank goodness for <———–these.

The hormones have returned. With a vengeance it seems. I’m not typically one you would describe as a crier but lately I’ve been an emotional wreck. I have my ups and downs and they are pretty extreme. I get crazy irritable and am quite cranky and moody one minute then weepy the next then back to being myself the very next. I almost feel crazy. I feel bad for the kids and Tom being around me right now. If anyone has any tips on how to reel that in, suggestions are welcome because I’m driving myself nuts. I’m also feeling stressed and anxious and I honestly don’t know if I can pinpoint what over. Maybe it’s the lack of preparations I’ve done to get ready for Emma, maybe it’s the discomfort of being as big as a house, maybe it’s the lack of sleep, maybe it’s part scared to death of the labor thing, maybe it’s the part of OMG…I’m about to be a MOM and have a baby of my own to care for (which also excites me far beyond words), maybe it’s part that I still have yet to hear from a daycare on if I’m in or not. And I know some of this is all pretty premature to be worrying over but I swear, if time keeps moving the way it is, it’s all going to be on top of me before I know it. *sigh* It’ll all work out. It always does. Now to just get that through to my hormones would be great. I keep trying to do it all and keep up and I am beginning to feel like an epic failure because I get to the point where I just crash and burn. I make a lousy pregnant woman don’t I? hahahahaha – probably a good thing Tom and I decided on just one!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and Father’s Day! Thanks for popping in!

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I have officially hit that pivotal moment in my pregnancy where I am in my third trimester. Oddly enough, I am healthy as a horse and big as a cow but I feel great! As much as I am ready to be done, thanks to 100+ degrees PLUS 90% humidity weather, I am going to be sad when it’s over. I love feeling Emma move but it’s going to be even better when I have her wriggling in my arms. *sw00n* AND I won’t have the body temp of a burning stove and I may be able to see my feet back to normal again- I can’t wait to meet her! 12 more weeks. It’s going to be over before I know it. Guess I better get moving on preparing for baby!

I had my one hour glucose screening this morning and it came back negative for diabetes so I was very relieved! The only thing wrong is my hemoglobin levels are about half where they should be so I’m anemic and have to start taking Rx Iron supplements. At least now I understand why I am just overly exhausted and tired all the time. Good to know it’s not because I am just a wuss. But now I begin my two-week visits. Emma’s heartbeat is strong and healthy. In the 140’s and she’s measuring great! I go again on the 20th.

Here is a recap of my 2nd trimester belly progression.

Yeah, it looks like she grew quite a bit in just 4 weeks doesn’t it? I have an inkling this little one ain’t going to be so little…………….

And because I have not had anything creative to share with you in a while, I thought I would share a piece of art work that Macey painted for Tom and I. She loves art and wanted some art supplies for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. So Tom and I got her an easel, some watercolors, acrylics, oils, pencils, etc. This is what she painted using her watercolors. We are blessed with 3 very talented artists and one of my favorite things to do is display my favorite pieces they draw or paint by framing them and hanging them in the house and I love this newest addition. Reminds me of a Texas sunset.

Oh and I did make this overly LARGE card this weekend for someone at work. It’s made from poster board (folded in half). It was quite fun to make. I’ve never made a giant card before, but now that I have – I will definitely be doing it again!

I hope you all are doing well and thank you always for stopping by and not giving up on me! 🙂

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I’m here and well. Taking things easy. I think under normal circumstances I would be all over scrapping and updating my blog but for some reason, I’m feeling a huge lack of motivation lately! Maybe it’s the increasing heat and humidity and growing belly that is weighing me down but all I know is that I wish I had more “oomph”. I could use it to keep up with the schedules lately.

I do miss playing around in my craft room but by the end of the day and week, all that sounds good to me is putting my cankles up and watching some TV. Which is not good since I have some Echo Park – For the Record that the DT at For the Luv of Art got to play with this month sitting on my table. It’s been calling my name all month but everytime I go in there to create, something else starts to call my name. But I did get some play time in this past weekend while Tom was away on soccer tournaments that I will leave you with. (Which Bailee won her Fire tournament – they got the gold medals! woohoo! AND she made the 8th grade Volleyball team! double WAHOO! – So proud of that girl! ♥♥) anyway – here is a card I made and a framed layout both using Echo Park – For the Record:

Oh and I have to share with you a project I made for work. We were hosting a Luau at work and I thought it would be fun to do a photo backdrop for people attending to get their pictures done. So I got a canvas dropcloth from Lowe’s, some paint and painted this beach scene as our photo-op! It turned out super cute!!! And that sun and monkey? I made those too! How fun, right?

I’m finishing up on a “in the works” project and will share that soon, hopefully! But I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy your Memorial Day weekend this weekend! We will be in Gulfport for one more soccer tournament!